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Recent
Stories
May
1, 2003
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Santorum: That's Latin for Asshole
Iain
Boal
A May Day Message to the FCC: "We
Are Many; They are Few"
Diana
Johnstone
About Cuba
Sam
Hamod
Killings at Al Fallujah, City of Mosques
Veteran
Intelligence Professionals for Sanity
Intelligence Fiasco
Lee Sustar
Greed Air: Airline Workers Agree to Pay Cuts, While Bosses Stuff
Their Pockets
Peter
Linebaugh
May Day at Kut and Kenthal
Stew Albert
Straight Shooters
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 5/01
Website
of the Day
South Bay Mobilization
April
30, 2003
Ashley
Smith
Under Uncle Sam's Thumb: a History
of Washington's Occupations
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 4/30
Gary
Leupp
Shooting Schoolboys: Preliminary Thoughts on the Fallujah Massacre
Robert
Jensen
Fighting Alienation in the USA
Wayne
Madsen
The Four Horsemen of Propaganda
Ahmad
Faruqui
Bush's Strategic Myopia About the Middle East
Gabriel
Kolko
Iraq, the US and the End of the European Coalition
Adolfo
Perez Esquivel
A Nobel Laureat's Letter to Bush:
"You Talk of Freedom; You Detest Freedom"
April
29, 2003
Gary
Leupp
Disorder and Opportunity: the Results
of the Iraq War
Uri
Avnery
Don't Envy Abu-Mazen
Anthony
Gancarski
Brush with the Law
Mickey
Z.
POWs: Then and Now
CounterPunch
Wire
How to Spin Israel on the Hill: Internal Lobbying Documents
Robert
Fisk
Did the US Murder Journalists?
Chris
Floyd
Bush Telegraphs His Punches on Syria
Wayne Madsen
About Those Iraqi Intelligence Documents
Wallace
Gagne
Pilgrimage or Demolition Derby?
Eliot Katz
Playing Catch with Cracked Globes
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 4/29
April
28, 2003
Ann
Harrison
Fighting Back: Medical Marijuana
Patients Sue Ashcroft
Robert
Jensen
Lack of WMD Kills the Case for War
Peter Phillips
Total Information Control
Ron
Jacobs
Get the US Out of Iraq and Its Military Out of Our Minds
Mark Hand
Peace Park: The Pentagon Solution
to a Baseball Stadium Dilemma
Linda
S. Heard
Repeat After Me: Iraq is Weapons Free
Kurt Nimmo
US Military Bases: the Spoils and
Deceptions of War
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 4/28
April
26 / 27, 2003
Elaine
Cassel
The Other War: Bush, Ashcroft and
the End of Civil Liberties
Saul
Landau
Iraq War: a Policy of Christian and Jewish Fundamentalism
William
A. Cook
Sharon Recruits US as Mercenaries Against Syria
William
S. Lind
Now the Real War Starts
John Chuckman
In Jesus's Name:
Franklin Graham's Christian Empire
David
MacMichael and Ray McGovern
Ex-CIA Analysts on WMD: Where? Find?
Plant?
Gary Leupp
Why the War on Iraq was (and Remains) Wrong
Robert
Sandels
Cuba Crackdown: a Revolt Against Bush's National Security Strategy?
CounterPunch
Wire
An Open Letter to Jerry Brown on Oakland Police Violence Against
Peace Activists and Dock Workers
Mickey
Z.
Our Ba'athists
Anthony
Gancarski
Nader Plays Pullman
Scott
Handleman
The Mumia Abu-Jamal Case in Its True Colors
Claud Cockburn
Evelyn Waugh's Ear Trumpet
Poets'
Basement
Matt Simon, Sam Hamod, Hammond Guthrie and Stew Albert
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 4/26
April
25, 2003
David
Vest
It's Not the Oil; It's the Art!
Steven
Higgs
All About Tucker Carlson
Walt
Brasch
The Shock and Awe of American Ignorance
Alexander
Cockburn
The Decline of American Journalism:
the Case of Judy Miller
Zeynep
Toufe
A Letter to the People of Iraq from an Anti-War Activist
CounterPunch
Wire
Season of the Witch: Jeane Kirkpatrick Unbound
Hammond
Guthrie
Springtime in Iraq
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 4/25
Website
of the Day
Having
a Great Time, Wish You Were Here: Postcards from a War
April
24, 2003
Lois
Whitman
An Open Letter to Rumsfeld on the
Child Detainees at Guantanamo
Uri
Avnery
Abu vs. Abu: It's Not About Egos
David
Lindorff
Day Care in the Name of National Security? About Those Kids in
Camp X-Ray
John Grebe
Rev. Pat Robertson's Message in the Temple
Dokhi
Fassihian
Monster.Com: Ethnic Cleansing on the Web?
CounterPunch
Wire
Israeli Army Chief Threatens Peace Activists
Sam
Hamod
Our Man in Baghdad
Annie
C. Higgins
Do You Regret Being an American?
Harold
A. Gould
Will They Hate Us Forever?
Stew Albert
Big Brother in Bed
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 4/24
Website
of the Day
Muscles
Abroad
April
23, 2003
Anthony
Gancarski
When Young Mothers Die in Combat
Chris
Floyd
Desolation Row: Bush's Barbarians Teach
by Example
Marjorie
Cohn
Tax the War Profiteers
William
Lind
The Fourth Generation of Modern War
Dave Marsh
Nina Simone: Freedom Singer
Binoy
Kampmark
Malayasia's America: the War on Iraq
David Vest
Who's Looting Whom?
Standard
Shaefer
Super Imperialism: an Interview with Michael Hudson
Andrew
Rodman
Lawn Poem
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 4/23
Website
of the Day
Weapons of Mass Destruction in the Middle East
April
22, 2003
Edward
Said
The Appalling Consequences of the Iraq
War are Now Clear
Sam
Hamod
What's the Deal with This War?
Kurt
Nimmo
Shi'a Will to Power
Gary
Leupp
At last! The Necessary Evidence
Carl
Estabrook
Oblivious Americans: They Distort,
We Subside
John
Stanton
Iran's Reza Pahlavi: a Puppet of the US and Israel?
Ramzy
Baroud
What Else Hasn't Israel Told America?
Steven
Sherman
About That Cuba Letter
Wayne Madsen
Bush's "Christian" Blood Cult
Stew
Albert
Creep
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 4/22
Website
of the Day
Critical Media Literacy in Times of War
April
21, 2003
Elaine
Cassel
An Administration in Contempt
Gary
Leupp
Easter Thoughts on Liberation, Jesus
and Kanaka WaiWai
Roger
Witherspoon
Why Michigan Needs Affirmative Action
Uri Avnery
At Midnight, a Knock on the Door
Col. Dan
Smith
Early Lessons from Iraq
Jo
Freeman
After the Protest Comes Politics
Michael
Berry
The Friedman Absurdities
Gray
Brechin
Hang Black Banners: Mourning the Cultural Loss
Bob Riedel
The Taliban from Texas
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 4/21
April
19, 2003
Gary
Leupp
The Rape of History
Saul
Landau
Shop, Go to Church, Support Bush's
War, Wait for Armageddon
Michael
J. Fellows
Off With Their Heads: the Constitution According to Scalia
Pablo
Mukherjee
Roadmap to Resistance
Omar
Barghouti
Sharon's Bloody Beat
Anthony
Gancarski
Tony Blair: the Most Powerful Man in the World
Mickey
Z.
Animals: the Other Collateral Damage
Will
Potter
When Police Attack Journalists
William
MacDougall
America's In-Bedded Journalism
Neve
Gordon
Haunted by History
Adam
Engel
Wal-Mart and Peace
Dr.
Susan Block
Art Bombs: American Libertines for Peace
Poets'
Basement
Albert, Buono, Guthrie
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/19
Song of
the Weekend
Baghdad to Basra
April
18, 2003
Uri
Avnery
Operation "Syrian Freedom":
This One's Not About Oil
Jorge
Mariscal
"They Died Trying to Become
Students": the Future of Latinos in an Era of War and Occupation
Mickey
Z:
Coalition of the Unindicted: Only Losers Get Tried for War Crimes
Hussein
Ibish
Syria and the Road to World War IV
Reza Ladjevardian
Tarqeting Iran? Do It With TV, Not Cruise Missiles
Matania
Ben-Artzi
You Are Not Protecting My Son's Rights: a Letter to the President
of Israel's Supreme Court
Bruce Jackson
Jews Like Us
Joe
Allen
My Lai Revisited
Carl Estabrook
Support Our Euphemism
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/18
Website
of the Day
Meet the Victims of War
April
17, 2003
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Patriot Gore: the Fatal Flaws in
the Patriot Missile System
Joanne
Mariner
Looting Antiquity: the Legal Implications
for the Pentagon
Issam
Nashashibi
Zalmay Khalilzad: the Neocon's Bagman
to Baghdad
Wayne Madsen
Another Sign of the "End Times" for American Journalism
Robert
Fisk
The Army of Occupation
Boris
Kagarlitsky
Virtual Saddam Takes Aim
Biljana
Vankovska
A Personal View of Iraq: Where
is the Truth?
Dan Brook
Oil War: Fueling the Empire
Stanley
Heller
Bomb and Steal: This is What Privatization Looks Like
Tim Robbins
A Chill Wind is Blowing Through This Nation
Harold
A. Gould
Iraq After the War
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/17
Hot Stories
Elaine
Cassel
Civil Liberties
Watch
Michel
Guerrin
Embedded Photographer Says: "I
Saw Marines Kill Civilians"
Uzma
Aslam Khan
The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War:
What America Says Does Not Go
Paul de Rooij
Arrogant
Propaganda
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
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May 3,
2003
William J. Bennett: a Freudian
Perspective
The Ego is a
Fragile Thing, Bill
By ELAINE CASSEL
Dear Bill:
The exposure of your addiction to gambling
couldn't have made me happier. Not because I like to read from
my perch here in Heaven about the suffering of men, but because
you, and others like you, help keep my theory alive. You know,
ten years or so ago, Time Magazine, that venerable institution
of American culture, declared me dead. And the Library of Congress,
a truly venerable institution, had to shut down an exhibit on
me for years while it figured out a way to appease feminists
and gays who called me irrelevant (like your President says about
the U.N. now) and politically incorrect (like Trent Lott-and
while I am on the subject, why isn't that Rick Santorum politically
incorrect? At least I tried to understand homosexuality, not
condemn it).
Pardon the historical digression. I
have a lot of pent-up anger myself at how my name and theories
have been abused over the years. But that brings me back to my
point. That New York Times story about you! Now, that
was a story I could sink my teeth into, so to speak. I always
figured there was a lot of pent up sexuality in your past. That
goes without saying given your extreme need to get on your moral
soap box and condemn everyone who is not in your political camp.
And you have that grim, tight visage like another man with serious
problems, John Ashcroft (no, I am not going there, not now, anyway).
Let him who is without sin, as the Christians
say, cast the first stone. And that sure isn't you! You are
right up there with the best of the men whose fragile egos resort
to extreme measures to protect them from having to realize that
they are just like anybody else. Riddled with doubts, insecurities,
and aggressive and sexual impulses that are hidden behind starched
white shirts, blue suits, club ties, and Republican respectability.
You channeled your more potentially self-destructive
impulses into the more socially accepted pastime of gambling
(a process I referred to as sublimation). Now, there's an addiction
for you! Funny that you rationalize your addiction to gambling
(remember that term I coined for the irrational justification
of behavior?) by saying it is like drinking. But of course, like
compulsive drinkers and gamblers, you are in deep denial. Neither
of these mechanisms are your fault, mind you. You don't even
know you are rationalizing and denying. That is what your fragile
ego is doing for you. Got to save face, you know. Not content
with rationalizing and denying, your ego then set you up for
projecting. Recall, from your Psychology 101 course (I am sure
you had one somewhere in your elite educational past), that projection
is when you put your evil and immoral impulses onto others, while
holding yourself out as the moral compass of the Western world.
You are no better than Jimmy Swaggert and Jim Baker-they just
acted out sexually (and I don't have enough data to speak to
your sexual issues, here, Bill).
But, like Swaggert and Baker, there are
some holes in your self-justification. In some states, you know,
gambling is illegal. Did you know that? I mean you wouldn't be
betting and losing tens of thousands in a casino in Virginia,
no way. Just because you get away with it in that town without
a moral compass, Las Vegas, doesn't make it right. I mean, you
and your buddies preach moral absolutes, based on Biblical principles.
No place for situational morality here, Bill.
Moreover, your apologists say that your
gambling is between you, your wife (not sure about that one!),
and your accountant. Where does that kind of justification come
from? I mean you would be the first to jump on states that don't
think smoking weed should be a capital offense. So don't go
justifying your greedy impulses by saying you do it only in Las
Vegas. Why, I read that you and a couple of notorious Supreme
Court justices engage in friendly poker matches. Why is "friendly"
poker any more legal than sex among friends that Rick Santorum
thinks is analogous to child molestation (now, Rick, he is next
on my list. That guy has serious problems.)?
All a matter of perspective, you say.
You are not hurting anyone, you say, You can afford the losses,
you say. How come reasoning does not extend to sexual and drug
offenses that you find so reprehensible? Want a little quick
and dirty insight? It is that fragile ego thing again, along
with a good dose of American machismo. You have to be better
than somebody, or you risk realizing that you are just a nobody.
A nobody from the standpoint of ego strength and insight into
your own behavior, Bill.
Sorry if I seem to be hard on you. If
I had the opportunity to have you on the couch for a year's worth
of three-times-a-week sessions, I could have let you get to the
bottom of your problem. But I just had to use your situation
to try to better my position in the history of psychology-see,
Bill, I am a lot like you. Hell, we are all like you in our own
way. Too bad you cannot see that and show a little empathy like
my friend Carl Rogers wrote about. I am sure you must have heard
of him. If not, look him up in that extensive library of yours.
Well, I have to close now. Though I have
all the time in the world left up here, I have a lot of thinking
and writing to do. First Rick Santorum, and his sexual issues
and then Bush and Rumsfeld and their lust for blood that is getting
down right scary for one who lived though the madness of Hitler.
When I get them figured out, I have got to devote some serious
time to John Ashcroft. He reminds me a lot of you, come to think
of it.
Sincerely yours,
Sigmund
Elaine Cassel
teaches psychology and law, and has written a textbook on criminal
behavior. In her more serious moments, she writes about psycholegal
issues for FindLaw and CounterPunch and maintains a
web site devoted to the "other war" on civil liberties.
She can be reached at: ecassel1@cox.net
Yesterday's
Features
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Santorum: That's Latin for Asshole
Iain
Boal
A May Day Message to the FCC: "We
Are Many; They are Few"
Diana
Johnstone
About Cuba
Sam
Hamod
Killings at Al Fallujah, City of Mosques
Veteran
Intelligence Professionals for Sanity
Intelligence Fiasco
Lee Sustar
Greed Air: Airline Workers Agree to Pay Cuts, While Bosses Stuff
Their Pockets
Peter
Linebaugh
May Day at Kut and Kenthal
Stew Albert
Straight Shooters
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 5/01
Website
of the Day
South Bay Mobilization
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